Yours Truly Reimagines Music Videos for the Web

SAN FRANCISCO — If Lionel Richie ever split into two people, he might look something like the members of Chromeo.

Situated in Different Fur studios in San Francisco’s Mission District the duo — Dave 1 and P-Thugg — are playing a stripped-down version of their new track “Don’t Walk Away” with just P on piano and Dave working his this-one-is-for-the-lovers vocals. This is extremely unusual for a band that musically leans much more toward The Commodores’ “Brick House” than Richie’s solo balladeer style.

But this performance isn’t being recorded for Chromeo’s new album, Business Casual, or for MTV or even a collection of quirky B-sides. The session is being taped for Yours Truly, which means it’s different than what most people think of when they hear the words “music” and “video” placed together.

“Real unplugged shit,” Dave quips as mikes are set up and everything in the softly lit studio is made just right.

Later, he tells Yours Truly founder Will Abramson the new video is “going to be different for us.”

“I feel like for people who think [we’re] just dance music, this highlights more of the song,” Dave says.

It’s the kind of moment of sincerity you wouldn’t expect from half of the duo that penned a track called “Bonafied Lovin,” but that’s exactly the point.

On the web, videos can be, and are often preferred to be, much more loose than the slick reels that appear on MTV and elsewhere. While this can lead to a lot of bad one-offs clogging YouTube, the team at Yours Truly has cultivated a raw-yet-sleek, intimate documentary style that’s reinventing what music videos can be. It’s not Beyoncé and Lady Gaga in Quentin Tarantino’s Pussy Wagon, but it ain’t bad. And, depending on your taste, it might be better.

Since launching 10 months ago, San Francisco-based music video blog Yours Truly has gained a reputation for getting musicians to record creatively reconceived versions of their songs, often in less-than-typical situations (see the video of Local Natives playing “Airplanes,” which took place on a set of Chicago train tracks and during which Abramson caught a mugger). But the uncanny nature of the clips is what attracts bands to Yours Truly.

“I like the production on the site, they are well-crafted videos and the projects they’re doing with the artists are cool,” says Dave 1, adding that he first was drawn to the site’s work after spotting the Yours Truly video for Delorean’s “Grow” on fashion site Selectism. The band members liked the clip so much they asked their publicist to contact the site.

It wasn’t always so easy.

“When it first started no one knew who the fuck we were,” Abramson says a couple weeks later outside a San Francisco cafe. “It was really hard to get people to do shit.”

Despite his sailor-like delivery, it is clear Abramson is all heart. Possessed of a buoyant walk, mischievous grin and copious amounts of charm, Abramson is a self-proclaimed “helpless romantic” who cups his hands as if presenting an offering to demonstrate that what he puts on his site is meant to be “yours, truly.” He’s also quick to point out that the site really isn’t his, at least not entirely. It’s a group labor of love.

In 2008, Abramson was working as a marketing manager for imeem (later acquired by MySpace) and had lunch with Chryde (just one name, like Prince) — curator of Paris-based music video blog La Blogotheque and one of the forefathers of the intimate style that’s made DIY music video sites so popular.

At the time, Abramson wanted to meet Chryde to discuss ways to promote La Blogotheque’s videos on imeem. But then Chryde introduced Abramson to Nate Chan, who had been directing and editing clips for the French site. The two almost instantly began collaborating on Take-Away Shows for the La Blogotheque. Meanwhile, Abramson had also been collaborating with childhood friend Babak Khoshnoud on a video series called Keys to the City. But even then Abramson knew he’d like to strike out on his own.

In November of last year, Abramson was laid off from imeem. By January, he and his cohorts had launched Yours Truly. Chan directed and edited the videos. Khoshnoud designed the site and subbed on the cameras. A third friend, Caleb Morairty, came on to handle production for the video shoots (he also writes the site’s deliciously hilarious fantasy meetings with R. Kelly).

“I’d been wanting to start a blog for years,” Abramson says. “I was like, ‘Let’s just fucking do this.'”

Armed with little more than wits, computers and a Panasonic HD camera borrowed from the advertising agency where Khoshnoud works a 9-to-5, they began making videos, starting with a clip of San Francisco indie-rock staple John Vanderslice.

Slowly but surely the site’s videos, each one more colorful and thoughtfully constructed than the last, began making the internet rounds. Then, in February, the site posted a video of bedroom rockers The Morning Benders doing a version of their song “Excuses” at Different Fur and featuring a who’s-who of Bay Area musicians — including Vanderslice and it-band Girls — singing with Phil Spector, wall-of-sound gusto. It went everywhere.

“Yours Truly are great documentarians, who are especially good at presenting music and artists in ways that feel real,” says Pitchfork.TV executive producer RJ Bentler, who has worked with Yours Truly on videos for Pitchfork. “Whether you love, hate or have never heard of the bands they cover, their pieces give you a sense of who these artists really are.”

But praise from Pitchfork doesn’t pay the bills — at least, not yet. Not too long ago, Abramson, who recently moved into a spare room at his aunt’s place in San Francisco, got an unemployment check and a tax return, which together totaled about $1,300. He coupled it with some cash from Khoshnoud and bought Yours Truly’s first camera. (The site could probably be making bank from advertisers but, Abramson says, “I’m just really selective.”)

Lack of resources hasn’t curtailed the collective’s ambitions. They’re looking to start a label (tentatively titled Love Letters Inc.), Morairty has been planning a Yours Truly showcase for the next CMJ festival, and clip by clip they’re building a music video portal for music fans who don’t immediately equate “music video” with MTV — and with artists that want to do something without all the flash that music video production usually entails.

“It’s not a big production and the way we’re able to pull off this intimacy is because it is intimate,” Abramson says. “We’re making them comfortable to create their art.”

Maybe too comfortable. As the shoot at Different Fur coasts along, Chromeo’s P-Thugg is sitting at the piano as Dave 1 positions himself on a stool next to a mike. Abramson went on a beer run just before recording started and Anchor Steams are being passed around. Photographer Cassie Tregellas, on her second shoot for Yours Truly, is circling the band for the perfect shot. Khoshnoud is doing the same. A near-perfect take is completed and Abramson leads the half-dozen people in the studio in a round of applause.

“You guys wanna do another one?” Dave asks, looking around the studio as everyone nods in agreement. Then, perhaps sensing the intimacy or just feeling cheeky, he adds, “Focus more on my penis.”